Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1887-06-30
SET IN DIAMONDS.
BY Charlotte NJ. Braeme.
CHAPTER XIV.
VANISHED IN THE MIST.

Puollsheu tnelr last leading article on
railway missmanagement-th public
had discussed the matter in all its
branches, and the tragedy of the Est
nam FUNNEL become thing Of the past.
Cyril Marine had gone back to install.
much to the regret both of Lord Stair
and Lady Perth. They would fain
have kept him with them; he was so
different from every one else-so cheer
ful, so simple but he pinned in that lux
urious mansion. He wanted the garden
and the river; he wanted the familiar
music of the wind In the great green
boughs. Then Lord Stair declared
that he could live no longer at the
place; he could not bear it. He said
ina Marguerite's presence haunted
him everywhere. He decided on going
abroad; so-sad, cheerless, his heart
aching with regret and desolation-he
left home and went in serch o: forget
iulness. Whether he ever found it
whether the memory of the gentle
young wife and her beautiful face ever
died from him-this story will tell.
Once more Lady Perth was left in
solitary possession of the grand ances-
trail home of the Stairs. She was COM
pletely mistress now, the only change
being the nursery and the little sun
beam. Lord Stair had left his daughter
under her care she was to have COM
plete charge of the little one, and with
that Lady Perth was delighted. She
made no change in the establishment:
she kept the same nurses and servants:
she felt that the time of rest had come
now; she might fold her hands, feeling
that her work was done. 1t was not
likely that her brother would ever bring
home another wife she had no fear of
that. She felt that her position now
was secure. She was hard. proud.
cold woman-evil- minded and cruel
but she could not have been quite with
out conscience, for she was not quite at
rest. She did not like to sit alone in
those stately rooms when the wind
walled round the house she did not
care to go near the rooms that Lady
Stair had occupied; she was afraid of
being alone In the dark.
The servants noticed, too, how she
trembled and shuddered when any one
spoke Of her mother to the child. There
are many kinds of murder; the one she !
had chosen was certainly not the least |
cruel.
OF Darcy Este no news was received |
for some time when 1t came at last it !
was sad and brief enough. He died of
fever the week after his arrival in India, !
and Lady Perth read the news with
cold, cruel eyes.
"There is an end of ALL" she said, !
little dreaming that 1t was but the be-
ginning.
A December night, no moon, no stars,
no light in the dark heavens. no light on
the dark earth; the bitter wind blowing,
where she had fallen on the crisp, frosty
grass.
"Dead in life," she repeated to her
self over and over again. Then the
bitter cold seemed to pierce her. What
should she do? Where should she go?
II she could only close her eyes and die;
but death never comes when the I
wretched call. After a time, when her
eyes became accustomed to the dark
ness, she saw there was a feeble light !
from the moon she rose and looked |
about her. The embankment she had
climbed was steep one; down below |,
ran the iron rail /; she could see in the
distance the glimmer of red light she
was still near the tunnel, and saw some
thing OF the confusion that was going |
on. Then it occurred to her that the
sooner she left that spot the better She
could see no path, no road, but at last
she stumbled against stie; she /
climbed that and found herself in a
field.
"If nothing else comes, l can walk
the fields until morning." she said to
herself, and she did so, going through
field after fed, walking always like n
woman in hideous dream.
Where was the brave young soldier
whoa taars and EisGae still hurpaa h.
hands and face? What would he do or
say If he knew that she was wandering
in the cold of December night?
Slowly all the horrors of that awful
scene returned to her. Slowly all the
accusations Of Lady Perth returned to
her. She wrung her hands with pas
sionate pain and yet she saw her way
to freedom. There would be no more
question of the divorce court If they all
believed her dead and it was better by
far that she should die any death than
suffer that shame and disgrace: better
still If she could die, yet live-if she
could be dead in life. Still 1t was a
great, almost horrible, responsibility.
"My head aches; / am too tired to
think" she said to herself; and then
she saw the first CLEAN of red dawn
in the sky.
ONO lOunu utTseu near small town. I
She had walked the whole of the night.
but she could not tell how far was the
distance she had traversed.
Her own idea was still to get to Lon
don. She lad been told that 1t was the
safest hiding place in the whole wide
world.
She did not remember that she had
toiled through the long night without
food, without rest she did not know
why. as the daylight grew, the sight
seemed to fade from her eyes, and a
strange sensation, as though she must
fall at every step, came over her.
The little town was called Ling. and
the station was outside. She could get
TO London from there, she found but
there would be many changes, for this
was only a branch line from Ling to the
country town.
IL mattered little enough to her. She
would reach London some time and she
was so tired that even rest IN railway
carriage seemed sweet to her.
How far she travelled that day, where .
she went, what she did, were details
that Marguerite never could remember.
10 her 1t was one long dream of being ,
whirled through the cold, bleak coun-
try.
The old life was all left behind. It
dld not seem to her that she could be
the same Marguerite who had lived Mt Z
Ipfafail Uhn hoA /.